LA superintendent placed on leave after FBI raid on home and district office

Source: The Guardian

Fri 27 Feb 2026 19.20 EST
First published on Fri 27 Feb 2026 13.55 EST


Two days after the FBI searched the headquarters of the Los Angeles unified school district and the home of its superintendent, the district board of education placed Alberto Carvalho on administrative leave. The board met in closed session meetings for several hours on Thursday and Friday to discuss Carvalho’s employment with the nation’s second largest school district. The trustees unanimously voted Friday to place Carvalho on paid leave, and appointed another high ranking district official, Andres Chait, to serve as interim superintendent.

On Wednesday, FBI agents raided the district office, Carvalho’s home in the Los Angeles area and another location near Miami where the superintendent previously oversaw schools for more than a decade. A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles confirmed that a search took place “pursuant to an under seal, court-authorized warrant”, but did not provide further comment.

Media outlets have indicated the investigation is connected to the now-defunct education technology company AllHere, which created a chatbot for the district as part of a multimillion-dollar contract in 2024. Carvalho was a proponent of the chatbot, attending events with the company’s founder, and said it was “unprecedented in American public education”. The district paid the company some $3m.

Just months later, the parties cut ties and AllHere collapsed, the Los Angeles Times reported. The company went into bankruptcy and its founder, Joanna Smith-Griffin, faced fraud charges.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/27/los-angeles-superintendent-fbi-raid